


Tanned Skin and Red Burns

by Fukuro_City_Writes



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Abuse, Amnesia, Big Brother Shiro (Voltron), Bisexual Lance (Voltron), Bisexuality, Camping, Car Accidents, Child Abuse, College, Cruise Ships, Cuban Lance (Voltron), Eventual Relationships, F/F, Family, Family Drama, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Foster Care, Gay Keith (Voltron), Homophobia, Homophobic Language, Keith (Voltron) has PTSD - Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, LGBTQ Character, Luggage, M/M, Male Homosexuality, Multi, Nonbinary Character, Nonbinary Pidge | Katie Holt, Orphan Keith (Voltron), Orphans, Road Trips, Slow Build, Slow Burn, Summer, Summer Love, Team as Family, Vacation
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-08-16
Updated: 2020-02-22
Packaged: 2020-09-03 21:36:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 18,048
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20273998
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fukuro_City_Writes/pseuds/Fukuro_City_Writes
Summary: When the summer blues start hitting hard, Lance realizes the fun in the sun is almost over before he is off to college across the country from his hometown in California. After about a year of being free from Highschool, Lance had been stuck at home with his rather 'large' family, and by this point, he is ready to go ballistic the next time he feels a Hot Wheels hit the back of his head or if he has to fight over the bathroom space for a shower or god forbid he step on another dyno-nugget.So imagine the absolute relief he felt when his recently graduated friend from high school invites him on a vacation with him, his, fiance, and some mysterious little brother.Lance wastes no time in packing his bags and setting off without a moments hesitation, his hyperactive brain imagined palm trees and relaxation without bickering or banter or even being bothered, but boy is he wrong, as soon as he finds a mullet bearing teenager in the backseat of his ride to freedom, those thoughts of peace and silence are shattered.Learning along the way the very importance of a bruise from a Hot Wheels or a gooshy  sock from a chicken nugget, Lance confides in someone he never thought he would head to for emotional support.





	1. Chapter 1

(So before we get started I'd like to address some things, so in this fanfiction Keith has OCD(obsessive compulsive disorder), when this is first stated it will be viewed from Lance's perspective and seen through his eyes, due to this, some of what you read when it comes to "Keith's OCD" is a misconception based on what Lance's thoughts on it are. I promise that his understanding will develope along with their relationship (for those of you who have already read up to the reveal of Keith's OCD, I'd like to apologize if I have offended you in anyway, I should have made this statement before even starting the fanfiction) thank you for reading and without further adue! Chapter 1 of Tanned Skin and Red Burns!)

Glitter Glue Vs. Dino Incident.

It did not have to start like this.

But it did.

Oh _God, why did it start like this?_

Lance was used to getting in trouble, in a huge family with plenty of disastrous new adults and some almost teenagers, there was always your fair share of drama, trouble, and comments of 'how the heck did it even get up there?', but today was different, today was a day to go down in McClain _history. _

And it all started with Lance's Nephew Tito, Tito wasn't normally a trouble-making child, he was only five, but of course, if you have one toddler then you have to add another just for good measure. 

The thing about Tito was simple, he loved Dinosaurs. Every one of them, so of course Lance has the entire intro of _Dinosaur Train,_ trapped in his head and memorized by heart. 

So when Lance awoke that fateful morning at 12:00 in the afternoon, he just knew that that day was not going to go well. For when he went downstairs to gather some breakfast and he saw Tito on the floor with a plastic T-rex that was almost the size of him clutched to his chest, a bowl of fruit loops sitting at the table where he could run just to get a bite of the already soggy cereal and move back to his place on the floor without having to miss a second of his favorite show.

Lance's tired eyes slowly trailed across the living room, where his brother and sister-in-law sat watching their son's show, Lance always wondered how adults could get so transfixed in that sort of thing just for the sake of their child. It was sort of surreal to see in a certain kind of way. As his eyes trailed across them, back to Tito and then finally to the other tiny terror that sat at the table eating her marshmallow infected cereal, that was Lance's niece, Esperanza Mary McClain. Lance loved his niece, every ounce of her, but she was the biggest most extravagant diva-princess-ninja-warrior of all time. Lance likes to take partial blame in her dramatic side, and everyone in his family agrees, but he knows he taught her too well. For every time Tito went up to the table to gather a mouth full of his cereal, she would yell at him for being sloppy, because; "Tio and Tia said you have to sit down and eat!" And always Tito would reply with; "Shut up Essy No one asked you!" That bit might also have been Lances fault. 

Lazily walking to the cabinets with his phone in his hand to get breakfast, and kicking about six toys on the way over, Lance pulled out a pan and set it on the stove before heading to the fridge to get the eggs, having to move a jar of caramel ice cream topping just to get it, Lance grew curious and was checking the expiration date of the jar's contents when his oldest brother Antonio spoke up. 

"Mom and dad went-" he began.

"Tito just sit down!"

"-and they took-"

"Just shut up already!"

"-to get-" Lance got frustrated at the noise of the two toddlers and set the jar on the countertop, he walked over to the living room to listen to what Antonio had been trying to tell him when his brother's phone range. Antonio answered it and walked outside for a quieter environment, to which Lance could not blame him, with his wife Elizabeth hot on his heels, an excited expression on her face. Lance assumed it was a business call, huffing and walking back to the kitchen to finish making his eggs, he cracked the eggs into a bowl and began to whisk them with milk, turning the stove on with a pan smeared with butter sitting atop it, when suddenly the noise grew from loud arguing to full-blown screaming. 

Lance knew full well that in this family, all you have to do is ignore it and it will go away, his niece and nephew got into fights all the time, ruining each other's toys and stealing things from one another. Usually, it would mull over and they would be back to being partners in crime, or sometimes their parents would step in and separate them into different time-out corners. Lance revisited the days he and his siblings had a best friend shirt, a genius yet not so smart idea of making them get along in the worst fights, the best friend shirt was an overly large used-to-be white shirt that covered the both of them, on the front, inscribed in Sharpie were the words 'best friends', and while it could have been a smart idea, all it was good for was being close enough to your opponent to jab each other in the rib cage with your elbows or shove one another. 

Lance jumped and spilled milk when he heard a loud ear-splitting screech come from the living room, he looked over to see a bowl of spilled cereal roll across the floor of the kitchen as Tito cried for his favorite toy that was now in the hands of Esperanza, Lance's eyes grew wide and he rushed to clean up every ounce of spilled cereal from the kitchen floor. A crash was heard from the living room as he watched a lamp tip over, Tito had decided to take matters into his own hands and tried to pry his toy from his older cousin's hands. Esperanza may have been little but she was _very _ strong. Resulting in a tug of war that sent Tito back against the side table that had previously furnished the lamp. Esperanza stuck her tongue out and ran to the basement, T-rex in hand. 

Tito screamed his manliest scream and dashed after her, Lance rushed to reach the top of the stairs to watch and make sure that neither one tripped and fell.

"Guys! No running down the stairs! You two know better!" He shouted and was ready to run after them when his foot hit a cold liquid and suddenly his world flipped upside down and a throbbing pain erupted from his behind. He clenched his teeth and sat for a second to let the pain subside before he rushed down the stairs to get the two under control. 

By the time Lance got downstairs, Esperanza had locked herself in the storage room, threatening to cover Tito's dino in pink glitter, while Tito was banging against the door with hot crocodile tears dripping down his cheeks. Lance sighed and walked over to try and calm the poor child.

"Tio Lance, do thomething!" He screeched at him, "I-I want my T-reth back!" With the spit collecting in the toddler's mouth, Tito was practically unable to understand. Lance picked him up and held the five-year-old, rubbing his back.

"Hey, it's gonna be okay, I'll get it back, don't worry." Lance walked over to a desk downstairs, his basement had been his mom's old office, he picked up a ballpoint pen and unscrewed the point, pulling out the ink encased in a tube of plastic, he walked back to the door and stuck the end of the pen into the tiny hole in the doorknob, he heard a distinct click, giving a small smirk because, after years of living in this house, all the doors had the same locks, and he was still able to open all of them with nothing but a single ballpoint pen. 

The door popped open and Esperanza sat on her knees with the T-rex in front of her, its back covered in white Elmer's glue and bright pink glitter, in her hand was the shaker, she looked up at Lance and true fear shown in her eyes, she stood and hid the tube behind her, the toy fell over only to collect more hair from the carpet as well as smear glue into it. 

"Esperanza Mary McClain! What do you think you are doing!?" He used his best adult voice. Esperanza began to tear up and her lip curled pitifully, she wiped her eyes and hung her head in pure shame and regret.

"I cannot believe you! Don't start crying now because it is _not _ going to work on me today you both took things way too far and you will both help me clean up the mess you made in the kitchen and living room! But first Esperanza you will clean up Tito's Dinosaur and apologize!" Lance had snapped, and it wasn't until he set Tito down and saw both his precious niece and nephew crying out of fear and regret that it hit him, he had handled things just like his Mom used to deal with him and his siblings, that sent a chill up his spine and he sighed, helping Esperanza to pick up the toy from the floor and carry it out of the storage room. And it was in the bathroom while he was helping wash off the dinosaur that everything went to shit.

"Lance! Where are you!?" His mother's voice spoke throughout the house at a high volume, he stood up and turned the water off, putting a towel around the toy and walking out with the two younger kids.

"Mamma? What's wrong?" He walked to her, and it was then he realized what he had done, and he looked around at the entire upper half of the house, he saw it all through foggy vision, the lamp was laying broken to pieces, both bowls of cereal were spilled across the floor, puddles of milk were everywhere, one puddle was halfway cleaned up, a soaked towel was still lying on the floor soaking up the white liquid mess. And he realized the worst part of it, he wasn't seeing through and sort of foggy vision, but rather a cloud of smoke hung high above them, although his height had created a disadvantage and he coughed into his elbow. 

He had left the Stove on.

A pan full of black scorch marks was lying in the sink with the faucet running over it, steam still bellowed from the pan, and then the smell hit him, it was the horrible smell of burnt butter. 

"Can you please give me a good explanation for how this happened?" She appeared calm but there was a sort of malice in her eye as she glared at him sternly with her arms crossed. 

"I leave to get groceries, I left for half an hour! Half an hour Lance! And you tried burning my house down!" 

"But- Mamma- I-" Lance stuttered, so much had happened he couldn't focus on one thing to say.

"Lance I don't want to hear your excuses! You're practically a grown adult! You're going to college in two months!" He hung his head, clenching his fists and gritting his teeth, he hated being yelled at and feeling something was his fault, absolutely despised it. 

The front door opened and his sister and brother-in-law, Angelica and Bruce walked in with bags of groceries in their hands. Bruce coughed and blinked the smoke from his eyes, Angelica opened a window and began to wave a towel around. Lances mother huffed and walked to help Angelica rid the house of smoke. Lance bit his lip and moved to put his breakfast things away, he cleaned up the broken lamp and took one last glance at his family, he sighed and walked back up the stairs to get to his room. He laid on his bed and pulled out his phone, he still felt a sting from being chewed out for the whole situation, and he needed a distraction.

**The Cuban God: hey, r u still busy w/ vacation?**

**Hunky Boy: Yah, sorry i gotta go! baking with my grammy! talk later!**

Lance sighed and exited out of that chat and went to a different one.

**The Cuban God: Yo! Pidgey, you there?**

**Pidgeodal: Can't talk now, Beating the gym leader, ttyl.**

Lance frowned and dropped his phone down next to him, the screen slowly timing out. Lance took a soft breath and stared out the window of his room, pondering how he was going to survive in this house for the next two months until he moved across the country for college. Lance thought back to the morning, he still felt tiredness envelop him, and he was exhausted, utterly exhausted, tired of the yelling and blame and screaming. Lance felt hot tears well in his eyes, he closed them and gritted his teeth, trying his hardest to keep them in.

_ding._

Lance looked over as the notification from his phone went off, he picked up the device and sat upright, wiping his eyes and opening his phone, a message had popped up. 

**Champion of ANYTHING: Hey Lance, I know this is short notice but Adam and I have a vacation planned for next week, my little brother is coming and I'd heard from Pidge that you weren't doing anything, you want to come? **

Lances eyes went wide as he read the message, he couldn't help but let a massive grin spread across his cheeks as he read the message, his heart swelled and he thanked whatever God that had been listening, replying with quick fingers. 

**The Cuban God: Oh hell yeah! I don't care what we are doing or where we are going, I'll be there dude! Thanks for saving me from my boring ass summer Shiro T.T **

**Champion of ANYTHING: No problem, I'll pick you up next Friday, make sure you've got swim gear and sunscreen.**

**The Cuban God: ....I don't burn shiro, i tan. always. its what the gals and guys love about me most. **

**Champion of ANYTHING: good for you Lance. I'll call later with more details, im on my break at work**

**The Cuban God: BYE SHIRO**

Maybe his summer wasn't going to be that bad after all. Lance flopped back on his bed, hearing the springs in his mattress strain against his weight. He grinned and pulled his arms behind his head, already beginning to daydream. His brain went far, from relaxing beach days to road trips and good music, buffets, and good food. Maybe even Love. Lances eyes snapped shut and he sighed, maybe. 


	2. Vacation Packing

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lance packs for his trip, relfecting on some hard subjects and staring down a hard pill to swallow when it comes to introductions and meetings.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one will be longer than the first! From now all chapters will be over 3,000 words unless stated otherwise! Also just a warning there are hints of homophobia in this chapter! Youve been warned! Enjoy guys!

There's no better way to describe Lance's mood other than Excited Puppy. 

Lance had hardly slept the night that Shiro invited him on the trip. He was already looking for things to throw in his suitcase. Hell he even threw a load of laundry in the washer to make sure he had everything clean and wearable. He thought about it the entire week before Shiro was set to pick him up, so much so that he dreamt about it at night, dreams of palm trees and tides rolling across the sandy shores. 

Lance loved the ocean, with his whole heart, he loved visiting the beach, the sad thing about it was that the beaches of California were almost always crowded with tourists, time after time he had fished beer cans out of the waves and picked up stray fishing line off the beach, untangled plastic bags from the rocks and driftwood. Lance wasn't an environmentalist tree hugger, as his dad would say, but it seriously irked him and sent fire through every nerve in his body when he saw a sea creature wrapped up in something of human construction. 

What Lance will admit to, however, is buying into the eco-friendly companies, and movements to help clean the oceans everywhere. So Lance was very excited to be visiting other beaches on this cruise that Shiro and Adam have planned, Lance had never been on a cruise, he had never been on a real family vacation before in his life, because his family was so big, his dad could never get time off work, and they would have to rent large vehicles and save up, for a while they had a large savings jar for their vacation fund, every family member would have sent their change into this jar, but something would always happen and their jar would be broken into for the good of the family. Like when Lance's younger brother Diego, broke his arm on their niece's bicycle, his brother knew it was too small for him, the only reason he had tried to ride it was to wreck and have the whole thing end in failure. 

Or when the fridge broke, when Antonio hit a deer while driving, when his dad didn't get enough hours at his job to pay the bills. 

There was always something.

So yes Lance was very excited. He packed up his shampoo, his razor, his bottle of face mask gel, his toothbrush and toothpaste, all of his toiletries. 

He packed up his swim trunks, his socks, and some things he even bought brand new just to make the vacation more _authentic, _he bought new sandals, a new towel, sunglasses, and a new suitcase. It was the cheapest one he could find, a basic black suitcase with a large square pocket and on the front a smaller pocket. 

Lance wanted to make sure everything would fit. So naturally, he threw everything in and had Diego sit on it. It was how the McClain family worked. Though Diego was asking so many questions about where he was going that Lance decided he was doing it just to be annoying. So he kicked him out of his room. 

Shiro had called Lance the day after, later in the afternoon and explained everything they were doing, it was going to be a two and a half week trip, for the first week they would be on a road trip across the US until they made it to the docking area for the Cruise, Shiro had warned him about how very difficult it first is to board the ship and he told him to make sure he had his passport and ID. 

He said there would be a lot of waiting, and he advised him to bring headphones. He also got a bit of a dad lecture, Shiro told him to behave himself and to always be aware of the people around him, throwing in a comment about how he would act in high school. And in reply, he had blown a raspberry and scoffed, brushing it off and explaining to Shiro just how mature he was. 

Shiro had also explained that the road trip would also count as a camping trip, they were going to camp out some of the nights they would be out, but others they would just stay at a hotel. One thing Shiro did stress worrying was that he wanted Lance to share a room with his little brother, which Lance was not going to complain about, on vacation you need time with your fiance in your own room, and when Shiro asked Lance if it was okay that he shared a room he immediately agreed, he had no room to argue, no reason to, Lance was just happy he was invited along. 

So he was going on an elaborate vacation, and as far as he could tell the only catch was sleeping in the same room as Shiro's little brother, and besides, Lance was used to sharing his sleeping quarters, for most of his life he shared a bedroom with Antonio, and then when Diego came along Antonio left and Lance just gained a new buddy to share his room with.

And if Lance was lucky, this mysterious Shirogane brother might even be cute. If it weren't for the fact Shiro was engaged Lance knew he would have a thing for the man, and as much of a player as Lance truly likes to be, he was not one to cause those kinds of problems in a relationship. one thing that did catch Lance off guard was when Shiro had warned him that his brother was a bit OCD, and continued to give him a list of things he should look out for when on a road trip with someone with OCD, including the way he packs his bag, and Lance had taken that into consideration, he made sure he rolled his socks up into pairs, of course he didn't exactly check to see if they were matching, or if they were even the same kind of socks. On multiple occasions Lance had pulled socks out of his drawer and ended up wearing a knee high sock and an ankle sock. He had also made sure to put his tooth brush with his toothpaste in separate bags from his other bag of toiletries. 

But to be honest, how bad could someone's OCD be? Shiro had advised Lance into researching online just to help him out, but of course Lance did not take that advice and instead continued with his assumption of the Shirogane brother liking him immediately. 

But something in Lance grew more and more anxious as Friday drew nearer. Lance's mother had found out from his other siblings that he had been going on vacation with a friend from school, and interrogated him, asking him where he would be going and what he was to be doing. 

Lance had talked everything out with her, telling her of the cruise and campsites, as well as cities and beaches, She made sure he checked Friday morning that he had his phone, his charger, his wallet and his ID. By the end of her lecture Lance had sighed and given her a hug, giving her a reassuring kiss to her forehead. 

"I'll be okay Mamma, promise, and I'll keep in touch when I can." She had sighed and nodded, giving him a smile and another hug, no matter how many spats the McClain family had, no matter how many arguments, no matter how many tears and yelling, his mother was someone he could depend on. Even if he hadn't yet told her his biggest secret. 

She gave him another hug and Lance returned it, her warm embrace was always his favorite, as a kid he remembered crying into her shoulder when he had chipped his baby tooth or scraped his knee up. Maria McClain always gave the hugs that could make anything better, and this hug brought up a lot of the emotions he had felt over the summer, a lot of his frustrations from his siblings, his niece and nephew, even his own mother. And as he thought such things his eyes again brimmed with tears, and he thought maybe he could let them fall, he could let them fall while in the comforting arms of his mother, he could let them fall while he finally felt safe. 

That maybe, turned to a definite no with as little as one sentence. 

"I want to meet Shiro and his Fiance before you leave with them. They're coming to pick you up soon right?" Lance's heart dropped and his body went rigid, he could feel a burning in his chest and a pit in his stomach, but the tips of his fingers went completely cold. 

"B-but Mamma Shiro is an adult he's perfectly capable-" He tried to argue.

"No buts, that is my stipulation, if you're going to be gone for two and a half weeks I want to meet who you'll be staying with." She crossed her arms, her warm embrace left in the past as Lance felt his throat close up. And he knew there was no way around this, arguing with his mother was like arguing with a rock, but he was always proud to tell people about where his stubborn behavior came from, and yet it always came back to bite him in the ass. But Lance gulped down the lump of fear forming in his throat right against his Adam's apple, he felt like he could hardly breath. 

"Alright Mamma... I'll introduce you." He chewed on his lip and thanked whoever was in the sky above, whether it be a god or the government, that his father would be at work for another four hours. His mother's face lit up and she grinned a smile only a sneaky McClain could make before she nodded her permission on the subject and walked out of his room. 

Lance drew in a couple deep breaths. One thing on his mind and one thing only, what the hell was she going to think when she found out Shiro's Fiance was a man? 

Lance had never brought up anything in regards to the LGBT community to his family, he had been too afraid to say anything, to show anything, to do _anything _that could be seen as 'gay' and there was a time when he had almost slipped up, when he had almost been '_caught_ _being gay' _and it was when Diego had tried sneaking into his room when his best friend Allura had been over, and at the time his entire family was under the assumption that Allura was his girlfriend, which, in the beginning is what Lance had wanted from a relationship with Allura, she was absolutely gorgeous to say the least, and she had a fun personality, and one thing that kept Lance away from her was not only her constant rejection, but that she already had her heart taken. 

And up until recently she hadn't mentioned it until it became reality for her, and that was something Lance would always be jealous of, he was jealous of the fact that she found someone. Not that someone else had her, but that she found someone. And that was one thing that showed him he did not actually have feelings for her. In fact, he had been excited to find out that she had a crush, and on the Senior president of their rival high school no less. 

But after Allura was taken, her and Lance grew closer than ever, and so they would hang out, she would come to his house, but the family never mentioned their relationship to the two, they never asked either. They just _assumed. _No, it's what they expected. They expected him to come home with a gorgeous girl on his arm. And that day when Diego sneaked into Lance's room, and he had saw Allura applying a face mask to Lance's skin while they spoke of Allura's attractive boyfriend, he went and told, and that is when his father got involved, after Allura left that day he had come and asked Lance, in front of the entire family one simple question that was filled with too much malice, too much disappointment, too much grief for it to be curiosity, it was more of a demand. 

"Lance. Are you gay." 

Lance had been shocked to even hear that word be spoken into the air of his household, let alone to be used against him in such a tone. He was almost certain he had never heard the word come out of his father's mouth before in his life. And as he had stood there he looked around at all the spectators, all the little eyes, he felt as if they could all see through him, through his chest where they could stab into his heart with disappointment. He watched as Tito went up to his mother and pulled on her pant leg, no doubt about to ask what the new word had meant, she shushed him, her eyes never leaving Lance's terrified face. 

A couple of seconds felt like a thousand hours, and he was worried he had stayed quite so long that he blew his chance to disagree, but his eyes roamed to Angelica's face, and she had given him a smile, and finally it was like a soft light at the end of a dark tunnel, and he felt just a bit of hope, and that is when his eyes met his father's, and the same dark blue eyes held a sharp look of disapproval, and disgust, and in that moment Lance knew he would never be able to do it, not on his own, not even with the help of an encouraging smile. 

"No, dad. I'm not." Lance had said, and it technically was not a lie, he wasn't gay, he loved women, but he also loved men, this feeling had confused him at first, but then he had grown accustomed to it, and he felt prideful of it, he felt proud of who he was, up until that very moment when his father's disappointment turned to relief. 

"Good, and that girl? Is she your girlfriend?" He held a pointed look, his tone still sharp enough to poke and cut at Lance's heart. Lance clenched and unclenched his fists.

"No, she has a boyfriend." 

"So? Are you trying to get her?" A look of pride passed across his father's face and his stance wasn't as menacing. Lance tried to speak up against that idea, trying to hide his repulsion. But his father s poke again.

"Or are you using her to get to one of her friends perhaps?" Lance liked that idea better, so just to keep his father's head buried in the dirt on the other side of his closet door farther away than ever, he nodded in agreement, a grin broke out on his father's face, and he patted Lances back hard. 

"That's my boy." He grinned and walked back to the living room for hid Lazy Boy recliner. The rest of his family had dispersed and he was left to wallow in his own darkness from then to the present day. 

Lance had been so focused on his memories that he hadn't realized his drifting up to his room, his legs felt numb and so did his fingertips. His phone began ringing and he pulled it from his pockets t o see Shiro's number light up the screen, and a shock when through him, and he remembered that he was about to leave, he was finally going to leave. as quick as his fingerrs could he answered the phone.

"Hello?"

"Hey Lance! I'm outside waiting, at least I hope this is the right house." Lance looked out into the driveway to see a dark grey Subaru outback in his driveway. He grinned and let his curtain fall back over the window. 

"Yeah, I see you, I'll be down soon."

"Awesome I'll see you soon-"

"Shiro?" 

"Yeah?"

"My um, my mom wants to meet you and Adam.."

"...Okay? Is that gonna be a problem for you?" 

"It's just that...I don't know how she feels about, you know..."

"Lance, you haven't told her yet?" Even though Lance couldn't see Shiro's face, he knew that he wasn't talking about him and Adam. 

"No... I haven't." 

"It's going to be okay Lance, We'll meet her for a minute, and then you'll come with us and we'll be out of here, trust me." 

Lance took a very deep breath.

"Okay Shiro, I trust you." He hung up and grabbed his bags, excitement and nervous tension rolling through his shoulders, he slung one bag around his shoulders and extended the handle of his new suitcase, checking to make sure his blue ID tag was on it, before grabbing his phone and wallet, taking everything downstairs. His mother was waiting in the kitchen watching the vehicle through the window. 

"That's a nice car." She nodded in approval.

"You ready to go meet them?" An excited smile spread across her face and it was almost as if her wrinkles disappeared in a single moment. Lance couldn't help but smile back as he carried his bags out to the car, Shiro saw Lance coming and got out to open the back for him. Adam also got out to help Shiro.

Lance decided not to look back and see the look on his mother's face when Adam and Shiro shared a loving smile after fitting Lance's luggage into the back. Instead he gestured towards her. 

"Mamma, this is Shiro," Shiro smiled charmingly and shook her hand, "and this," Lance continued, "Shiro's fiance, Adam." Adam also shook her hand with a soft smile pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose to sit back on his face properly. 

"Oh my! Lance!" She turned to him and Lance kept his eyes pointed at the ground, a bead of sweat dripped down the back of his neck. 

"Why didn't you tell me they were such a lovely couple?" Lance's eyes went wide and he snapped his head up to stare at his mother. She smiled at the two kindly.

"It's great to meet you both, Lance talks about you a lot Shiro, nice to put a face behind his words." She smiled, "and a handsome one at that." Both Shiro and Adam's faces lit up in pure relief of her reaction, and they began to strike up a conversation. 

Lance stood between the three and simply gawked, his eyes swiftly switching back and forth between his mother and the couple to his left. 

"It was wonderful to meet you Mrs. McClain, but we should head out, I have to pick up my little brother from the gym in a few minutes." Adam got back into the vehicle as Shiro explained to Lance's mother.

"Oh please call me Mar, Mrs. McClain makes me sound old."

"But mom you're-" Lance began but was interrupted with a light smack to the back of his head from his mother. 

"Anyway, please take good care of my son, and if you would, remind him to call his mother once and a while." 

Shiro nodded and smiled kindly at her. 

"Sure will, I'll take good care of him, I promise." They shared smile before Shiro got into the driver's seat, and Lance was eager to get in but his mother stood in front of him, blocking his escape. 

"Don't you be causing those boys any trouble Lance, you're lucky they're taking you on this trip. Have fun honey." She gave him another tight hug, Lance gave her a tight squeeze right back, leaning down a bit to make it easier for the older women. 

"And Lance? I'm sorry about the other day, I shouldn't have snapped at you like that, Tito and Espy told me what happened, I just wanted to apologize for how I reacted." Lance couldn't help but to smile and squeeze her into his arms more. 

"Thanks mamma, I'll see you soon." He smiled reassuringly at her. 

"You better." She smiled and let him go, rubbing his shoulders. 

"Have fun mijo!" Lance got into the car and waved at his mom as she walked back into the house, and then, she was gone. He buckled and looked at Shiro and Adam.

"I haven't seen you suck up like that since you met my parents." Adam remarked, smirking at the taller male. Shiro chuckled at him. 

"I was just trying to make a good impression." He looked into the review and met eyes with Lance, "You ready?" Lance grinned and nodded. 

"You know it!" 

With smiles on everyone's faces, they were off to the gym to attain the mysterious Shirogane brother. 

And in the parking lot of the gym is when Lance's smile disappeared, replaced with a look of pure shock as a dark clothed figure walked up to the vehicle, long hair bouncing with every step as he drank from a dark purple container. Wiping his forehead of sweat with a pristine white towel. His dark purple eyes looked at the car and Lance could swear he was already glaring daggers at the dark skinned male. 

"Hey Keith, get in we're headed out now."   
  



	3. Red + Blue do NOT make Purple

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Keith reflects on some hard memories and has some time before he realizes that his own huge pain in the neck will start as soon as the vacation gets rolling.

For Keith, today had been a pretty nice day, he was excited to go on a trip with his brother and his brother's fiance, he had been preparing for this trip for months since it was planned. In fact, Keith could be found guilty for slipping a pamphlet into Shiro's nightstand, and of course, Adam had been in on it completely. They had researched road trips together before Shiro even knew what hit him. Of course Keith wanted a quiet vacation, a camping trip with road trip included, but of course, Adam wanted to go to the water, a sunny vacation with lots of things to do that he didn't have to prepare for. And so when they approached Shiro with the idea of a vacation they had started a small argument. "We should go camping! In the outdoors! We can pack food and live off the land, sleep under the stars, it would be fun." Keith crossed his arms stubbornly over his chest. Adam lifted an eyebrow at Keith. "But do you realize how crappy a two and a half week camping trip would be? No showers, mosquitos constantly, predators in the woods, it would just be terrible!" He argued back, crossing his own arms over his chest. Shiro watched the two argue for a minute longer before he had stood and decided to speak his opinion, to be honest, Shiro liked both the ideas, he loved being outside but Adam posed a good argument about the mosquitos and predators. Shiro also enjoyed being on large boats and being able to relax without having to do anything. "Guys, why don't we do both?" Both heads whipped around to look at him with raised eyebrows. Keith put his hand on his hip and shifted his weight onto one foot as if waiting for an explanation. Adam, on the other hand, kept his arms crossed and turned towards Shiro completely, a little more interested in the idea than Keith was. "How do you suppose we do that?" Keith had asked, he hated the idea of the cruise, there would be too many people, and children running all over, messes and tiring activities. "How would we do that?" Adam asked a little less aggressively, of course, Adam would rather be on a cruise than out in the middle of nowhere, but he also wanted to hear what Shiro's idea was. It was his vacation too so he should get a say in it. "Let's book a cruise, and then we can have a camping road trip a week in advance across the country, and we will drive to wherever we need to in order to board the cruise and its smooth sailing from there. But I really like the camping idea, and relaxing for once would be awesome too." Shiro smiled at them both, Adam smiled back and thought that it would be a great idea. While Keith was still stubbornly stuck on the camping trip strictly, however, one look from Shiro's excited face and his demeanor changed, he sighed and caved in. "Alright, I'm in. But I'm not going to do anything stupid like Shuffleboard or some shit. Also, the cruise has to have a gym on it." Keith crossed his arms again. Adam rolled his eyes in slight exasperation, but smiled anyway, nodding in agreement with Keith. "I think that sounds like a good idea, I'd be up for that, but I will not be collecting firewood with you guys, and we need to bring tons of blankets or bedding for the tents." As soon as Adam agreed and had set his stipulations Shiro grinned at them both, standing up from where they had made him sit down for this little 'family meeting', as Keith and Adam had called it. He wrapped an arm around Adam's waist and kissed the soft dark skin on his temple. Keith rolled his eyes at them and had left to get ready for his gym routine. Keith loved working out. Plain and simple. He could hardly go a day without it, he liked to push himself, he liked to feel his muscles burn under the strain and he liked the ache afterward because it reminded him that he was human. It reminded him that things could always get better if you worked hard at it. Keith also liked the final results, he never liked to brag about his body, but he likes how it's changed him. It's kept him disciplined. Keith could look in the mirror now and be at least a little happy with what he looks like, he has never been extremely buff, his arms were never too big, and that's how he liked it. Because to be honest, men who worked their asses off and took steroids to get huge muscles are overrated, Keith supports people if that's how they like to look or if it's what they find attractive, he wouldn't ever put anyone down for working hard for what they want. He just personally never preferred to look like that. It just wasn't his style, and he was fine with that. He was fine with small, toned muscles that didn't bulge out of his t-shirt, and if he was being honest, he was fine with having muscles in general. Keith worked hard for the body he has, though that was never his intention for going to the gym. Keith had always been told he had stubborn anger issues, which was not entirely true, he knew what he was doing when he got angry, he was just more irritable than most people are. And because of this, he was recommended to go to the gym by none other than Shiro. Shiro was also a gym rat like Keith, he just wasn't a regular visitor, like Keith was. Keith visited the gym every day and had a Personal Trainer regime every other day with his PT Thace. A big burly man with graying hairs and enough muscle to tell you he definitely knew his way around the gym. Keith liked the gym of course, but he loved his gym. Marmora Fitness. Run by a large guy named Kolivan, whom he's known since he was just a baby. Keith was told stories that his own mother had helped in the start-up of Kolivan's gym. Of course, he never remembered being there when he was a baby, he hardly remembered his mother. It was like a blank, drawn in his memories ever since he could, well, remember. He never actually knew his mother, he couldn't remember a single detail of her face, or her hair, whether she was skinny or fat. He just couldn't remember, what he did remember was the camping trip. Yes, Keith was biased to the camping trip because it was a nice memory, he was very little when it happened, maybe five, his mother took him out to a secluded area of woods, by a lake with trees taller than any building he had ever seen. And they camped out in a tent, it had a netting in the roof that allowed them to see the stars at night, he remembered a man being there too, he assumed it was his dad. Keith rubbed his temple at the memory, it always gave him a headache, those were the only memories he had of his parents, and he was told it was the last time he had seen them too. Keith revisited that memory when he went to the gym, sometimes he would get snippets more of it every time he pushed himself hard enough, but he couldn't remember the snippets, the only thing he got was a feeling he had remembered something. And he hated that feeling. Keith had been told the memory loss was due to head trauma like an accident had happened, an accident he never remembered. Keith awoke from his daze of memories when Thace clapped his hands and called his last set, Keith sat up off the bench press and was handed a towel, their session over for the day. "I guess I'll see you in a couple of weeks Thace." Keith said as he stood, only to the man's shoulder, and it had nothing to do with Keith being 'short' because Thace was just extremely tall. Everyone at Mamora Fitness was super tall, the entire staff. It freaked Keith out the first time he came in. "Good job today Keith, have fun on your trip. Stick to your regime. If I find out you skipped on it I'll overwork your ass for the rest of your time living here. Everyday sessions. That's a promise." He said strictly. Keith nodded, not wanting to test the man, he knew Thace was being completely serious. Keith left the gym after telling everyone goodbye, a couple of the PT's hugged hin, a little too tight, but everyone knew who Keith was. With eagerness in his walk, he walked out to Shiro's normal parking spot and uncapped his purple drinking bottle, gulping down some cool water. Keith could swear he saw someone in the backseat of Shiro's Subaru Outback, but that was ridiculous, it was only the three of them. "Hey Keith, get in we're headed out now." Shiro greeted him, smiling as he started the car back up. Keith nodded and opened the door, hopping into the back seat and buckling without a second thought. "Shiro! You said we were picking up your younger brother! Not mullet head over here!" Lance shouted from the seat next to Keith. Keith froze for a second and his eyes snapped to meet Lance's dark blue ones. Shiro put the car in reverse and quickly left the parking lot. "Keith is my younger brother Lance. Just not by blood." Shiro explained as Adam got his headphones ready. A stipulation he set when he had agreed to Shiro bringing Lance along. "Shiro what the actual fuck!" Keith grabbed onto the back of his seat and met his eyes through the rearview mirror. Shiro gave Keith a raised eyebrow look. "You set me up! You totally set me up! I didn't agree to this!" Lance protested. "I don't like it any more than you do asshole! This trip was supposed to be relaxing. There is no relaxing with him around!" Keith turned his head to glare at Lance accusingly. Shiro shook his head at the two of them. "You both agreed to this vacation! Its gonna be fun guys! You'll just have to tolerate each other, or better yet, get over this stupid hill you have been stuck on since Middle School!" Keith glared sharply at Shiro. "This isn't my fault! He doesn't have to be such an insufferable prick all the time!" Keith looked at Lance. "Hey! I am not an insufferable prick Mr. DropoutMcComeback!" "Why do you bring that up all the god damn time? I didn't drop out I just transferred for a while!" "Excuses excuses we both know the truth! You dropped out because you couldn't handle how much better I was at basketball than you!" "You are not better than me at Basketball, you just have longer legs than I do!" Keith got in Lances face. "Oh are you admitting to being Short?" Lance got right in Keiths face in return. "Are you trying to pick a fucking fight with me? I will throw you out of this moving car Lance!" "I'd let you if that meant I didn't have to see youe ugly hair anymore!" Lance glared daggers at Keith. Keith gritted his teeth. "Oh yeah? Well at least-" Both boys jerked forward as the tires screeched on the road, Shiro held an arm over Adam's chest to keep him from flying forward. Adam's face remained blank as he went through Facebook on his phone, headphones still in his ears and with the dead silence you could hear muffled Queen playing from his earbuds. The two boys knew they were in trouble when Shiro looked back at them. "You two, knock. It. Off. You're lucky we are even going on vacation, so zip it unless you have something nice to say to each other." Shiro spoke in a menacing warning tone. Watching the both of them through narrowed eyes. Both boys crossed their arms and looked out their respective windows, Lance's chin resting on his palm. Keith leaned back into his hoodie, sulking to himself as he watched the scenery go by. Shiro deemed the behavior adequate and continued his driving. It was silent for a while before Lance's eyes drifted over to Keith, looking him up and down, Keith was clean and neat looking, as usual, his shoelaces were tied appropriately to his taste and his clothes were clean, not a speck of dust nor ball of lint lingered on him. Keith looked down and took time to place his hoodie strings evenly on either side of his hood. Lance watched him struggle with it for a while. "Why don't you just take the string out?" Lance asked in genuine curiosity, he found it a little stupid and pointless to keep something like that if all it was going to do is annoy him. Keith looked up with a glare and began to snap back, receiving a warning glare from Shiro through the rearview mirror. He sighed and looked back down to the string, fumbling with it as he mumbled a reply. "Keeps my brain busy." Lance lifted an eyeball at him and nodded. "Why don't you get like, a fidget device or Rubix cube?" Lance suggested, Keith looked at him with a lifted brow. "Rubix cubes are boring, I actually hate them. And fidget cubes dont have the same amount of anything on them, at all, its like 'oh here is one stupid fucking joystick on one side and three buttons and then this weird changey disk thing. Its just stupid." He went back to messing with his strings until they were deemed appropriately the same length. Lance lifted an eyebrow at him. "You don't like them because they're, what, not simetricle?" Keith gave him a glare and Shiro tightened his grip just slightly on the steering wheel, and that's when realization slapped him in the face. The reason he had to completely rearranged all of his luggage to be 'neater', if you could call it that, was because Keith Kogane, had OCD. Lance blinked hard and looked Keith back over head to tow, every neat dark hair, the strings on his hoodie, his shoelaces. Everything was perfectly compatible with everything else. Lance looked back to Keith's face just to notice that his eyebrows were even completely symmetricle, and Lance realized that Keith actually took care of his face. And suddenly a new respect grew in him for Keith, he even had matching sets of earings on each of his ears, half hoops with sharp red points at the end, he had two piercings in each of his earlobes. And suddenly Lance understood why Keith did everything so, so perfect. Why he strived so much for perfection. It was just part of this condition, this was why Keith always looked so much better, why he acted like he owned the room when he would walk. But that was the part that pissed Lance off, and yet, did Lance have a right to be pissed off at Keith for something that wasn't his fault? "Why the fuck are you still looking at me?" Keith asked with a threatening tone. Lance blinked and sat up straighter, shaking his head and sending a glare right back at Keith. "I-I was not staring!" Lance combated, hoping he was convincing. He was not. "Whatever! You just were! For like ten fucking minutes, you're pissing me off already asshole!" Keith gritted out the last part in a whisper shout. Lance scoffed and crossed his arms, a challenge starting to set in at the back of his mind. "Oh you're pissed off? You don't even know the half of it yet Kogane! Just wait until we have to share a god damn tent together!" Lance threatened, sitting up straighter in an attempt to appear more threatening. Keith's eyes went wide. "Wait, what?! Shiro!" He shouted and sat forward to glare at Shiro through the rearview mirror. Shiro visibly sunk down in his seat. "I am not going to share a tent with that self control resistant dipwad!" Keith continued, pointing at Lance, his gaze never leaving Shiro's face. Lance smacked Keith's hand away with a glare. "Hey! I have self control!" "You do not! Fuck do you even remember how you acted in school?" Keith broke his staring contest with Shiro and looked at Lance. "Yeah! And I was fine! Unlike some undisiplined delinquent!" "I am not a delinquent!" Keith got in Lance's face yet again. "Yes you are! And the worst part is you would drag me into all of it! I've been to the principles office with you way too many times Kogane!" "That's because you were always picking fights with me!" Keith glared, "you're the reason I was labeled the delinquent! Like I said you have absolutely no self control!" Keith gritted his teeth and clenched his fists. "Yeah right! I'll fucking prove it to you Kogane." Lance challenged, snarling at Keith. "Oh? Really now? I'd love to see how you've changed in such a short time!" "Good because you fucking will!" "Sure. Now shut up, I was looking forward to piece and quiet on this trip." Keith growled out as he plugged his headphones in, he turned the music up and put both earplugs in before Lance could get a word in, he could see Lance trying to say something but he tapped his headphone and smiled sarcastically at the other boybefore turning to stare out the window. "-ignore me!" Lance tried to say before he groaned and deemed it useless, he felt exhausted. So he plugged his own headphones in and began a game on his phone, one that Pidge had installed for him. Shiro watched them in the mirror and smiled to himself, glancing at Adam, who had given him a smile back. Shiro drove across the state line of California with satisfaction setting in his chest. This was going just as he planned.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Introduction chapters are basically done! You know a bit about Lance and a bit about Keith! I hope you enjoyed this chapter and stick around for more!!


	4. The Road to Camp

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sleepy car times, making it to camp, affection of two men kisses and cuddles with energy drinks in between.

Keith never understood how Lance could be so, insufferable if all he did was sit there. Currently, Keith sat a seat away from Lance in the backseat of the Outback, Lance had fallen asleep against the window, headphones in his ears while his phone sat on his lap, the homepage of some game shown on his screen. 

There was never a clear indication of what it was that pissed Keith off about Lance, and as far as Keith could tell, it was everything. Everything about the lanky Spanish speaking boy caused an uneasy feeling in Keith's gut, it caused his brain to go fuzzy and his throat to close up, and for some reason, those feelings scared him. No, not just for 'some reason', Keith knew why those feelings scared him, it was the feeling he got whenever he walked into a new foster home when he was little. 

It was the feeling of excitement and nervous jitters that scared him. Because it made him lash out, it made every person around him turn their back on him. You could call it his own form of post-traumatic stress, a sudden flash of the many homes Keith has been to moved across his vision, images of angry tears running down his chubby child cheeks and open mouths shouting unrecognizable words that drifted through his young ears, more images passed his vision and in each one he was just a little older. 

The images consisted of complete chaos, shouting, broken glass, fists, shaking anger, red faces. and in each image was the picture of one of his foster care family members, whether it be a supposed brother, father, sister, brother, sometimes all four. He saw images of the principles office at his school, he saw himself walking into the homeless shelters as a teen. He saw himself in the alleyways on the dirty trashed cement floor. 

"Keith?" 

Keith hadn't realized they stopped, looking up to Shiro who was turned in his seat a concerned look on his face, Keith unclenched his hoodie sleeves, rubbing the wrinkles out of them as he exhaled a breath, Shiro gave him a questioning look, Keith gave him a nod of understanding and took a breath to get himself under control, he shook the tremble from his fingers and he remembered the other passenger, his eyes snapped to his right to see Lance was still out cold, he relaxed into his seat and rubbed his eyes with his palms, he looked up and saw that Adam was not in the passengers seat. 

Looking out the window Keith saw that they were parked in the parking lot of a gas station, the sun was barely setting, the lights above the gas pumps were being turned on, the dim lights flickering. 

"Do you want anything to drink while we are stopped? Do you need to stretch your legs?" Shiro asked him, forgetting Keith's previous dazed out moment of panic, Keith always appreciated that from Shiro, he never emotionally pressured him into opening up. Keith nodded his head and unbuckled, opening the door to get out, he yawned widely and stepped into the parking lot, raising his arms above his head to work out his stress knots, he sighed when he brought his arm back down. 

Keith turned towards Shiro just in time to see him wake the other boy. Keith's shoulders tensed and he angled a sharp glare toward the taller man, who, in return, refused to turn towards him. Keith watched Lance stretch his arms and legs before nodding his head, his words inaudible due to distance, Shiro smiled and headed toward Keith as Lance left the vehicle, Shiro locked the car and began walking with Keith.

"What the hell? You couldn't give me a couple of minutes without him?" Keith whisper yelled at Shiro, already feeling his gut starting to tingle with a familiar yet unwelcome feeling. 

"Come on Keith, I couldn't leave him by himself in an unfamiliar car in a sketchy parking lot at sundown, he would have a panic attack, you know that." Though Shiro seemed serious, there was something else behind his words, Keith could almost detect a hint of teasing. Keith sighed deeply and crossed his arms as Lance came up on his right, rubbing his eyes and yawning. Keith watched him from the corner of his eye, his shoulders slowly relaxed their tenseness when realizing that half-asleep Lance was better than awake Lance. 

Lance looked over to Keith for a second and didn't say anything, in fact, Lance might have given Keith a small, half-asleep, smile. Keith's chest clenched and he pulled ahead to rush through the door that Shiro was holding open, mumbling a quiet thank you to the other man. Keith headed straight for the energy drinks, although he knew better than all the sugary, carbonated, bull piss filled cans behind the glass of the coolers. He grabbed what he knew wouldn't make him need a pacemaker at 24 years old, and a bag of roasted peanuts. 

Turning down an aisle that was purely used to avoid the Cuban boy, Keith spotted Adam with an arm-full of the sugary drinks he had just avoided, Keith lifted an eyebrow at the other male. 

"Really Adam?" Keith shook his head at him. Adam rolled his eyes and grabbed a bag of candy, adding it to his bag of grease-soaked potato chips.

"Not everyone is a health nut like you, Keith." Adam shot back and pushed his glasses up with a smirk. Keith rolled his eyes and headed towards the checkout, piling his stuff on the counter and pulling out his wallet, Keith felt the presence of Shiro, Adam, and Lance come up behind him, he glanced back at the three and groaned at the sight of each male carrying a brightly coloured can, each of a different flavor and brand but all bad for your body. 

"I can't do it, you guys aren't drinking that stuff around me, not going to happen." Keith looked at them, Adam rolled his eyes, again, Shiro shrugged and Lance looked downright offended. Keith apologized to the cashier and asked for one moment, to which he speed-walked back to the cooler to add three more of his drinks to his purchase. Setting the cans on the countertop, with his card in the machine, no one had room to protest before he was picking his bags up.

"You can put that shit back I've got your energy levels handled." Keith walked past them and out to the car. Lance glared the male down as he walked out the door, turning back to Shiro and Adam. 

"Is he serious? I'm still getting my drink, he can't just- hey!" He felt the can leave his grasp. 

"Trust me, you don't want to test him on this one." Shiro took their drinks back to their respectful coolers. Adam nodded in agreement as he purchased both his and Shiro's piles. Lance sighed in defeat, deciding he was too tired for this argument. 

When they all got out to the car, they saw the drinks in their respective cup holders, Keith even figured Adam and Shiro would be switching seats for the night, Lance got into the back seat and picked up the energy drink from his cup holder, setting it in the cooler behind his seat. Keith gave Lance a lifted brow look. 

"What?" Lance questioned, "I have a sleeping schedule to keep up with, it's bad enough I napped." Lance stretched his arms up and yawned loudly, noticing that Keith's cup holder was empty as well. 

"You too?" The taller boy asked, sinking back in his seat.

Keith shrugged in reply and sunk back in his seat as well, pulling his headphones out to stick in his ears. Lance watched the boy's movements with unconcentrated eyes, yawning loudly into his hand, he picked up his phone and opened his music app, popping in his headphones, setting his phone down and glancing over to Keith, who sat with a pillow in his lap, although Lance had no idea where the black-haired male got it, he appreciated that Keith at least knows how to sit comfortably, stick up the butt or not. 

On Keith's screen, Lance saw glimpses of a video, Lance deducted that the video was from a Top Ten Creepiest channel of some sort, images of ghosts and ghouls flashed across the screen, although Lance couldn't hear the audio, he found it relaxing to watch it with his own music in, and if Keith noticed Lance's screen peeking, he didn't lead on. Keith yawned loudly into his fist and he felt his eyes beginning to close, glancing over, Keith noticed that Lance was already out cold yet again, his shoulders untensed and that was the final thing he needed to sleep, his head slumping back, leaving his neck in an uncomfortable position that would surely leave a kink in his muscles the following morning. 

Adam glanced back at them and smiled, opening his mouth to whisper to Shiro, noticing the soft snores from the man sitting in his passenger seat, Adam smiled at his drooling fiance and relaxed into the driver's seat, a calm atmosphere surrounding him as he drove into the night. 

===============================

The very next morning they had reached their first campsite. Keith, being an early riser, panicked when he realized that he had shifted in his sleep and ended up laying on his side across the middle seat, and unfortunately for him, Lance's body had the same idea in sleep, so the very first thing Keith saw was the back of a brunette head inches from his nose. Keith shot up faster than a Bobbit worm with a fish swimming over it, Keith wiped the sleep from his eyes and wondered how a tall lanky guy like Lance could even sleep in that position. 

Currently, Keith was sitting on a large log that had been placed around the empty and out campfire from previous attendants, clutching his energy drink between his hands and relaxing into the rising sun, unzipping his jacket as sun rays began to hit his back. 

The second to wake was Shiro, who had Adam laying his head against his thigh, Adam, having been the driver, had last options on sleeping, which of course worked out in his favor. Shiro had smiled and taken Adams glasses carefully from his face and set them aside, combing his fingers through the brunette locks. Surely enough Shiro began to get antsy, his feet beginning to go numb due to the weight on his thigh. Shiro very carefully picked up Adam's head, grabbing the pillow he had been using to protect his head from the window, he set it under Adam's head and covered him with his own blanket, knowing that his fiance regularly got cold easily. 

Shiro looked into the back seat and realized that everyone had had a blanket, to which he didn't remember grabbing his own, meaning Adam had covered them all before he went to bed last night, Shiro smiled softly and gave Adam's hair one last stroke before he quietly closed his door and walked over to Keith, his arms stretched above his head. 

Keith looked up and watched Shiro sit next to him, silently handing the man a can of energy, Shiro accepted it with a nod of appreciation, and the sound of hissing from the open can, was the only foreign sound that the forest heard as the two brothers sat in silence side by side. After a bit, Keith broke the silence and spoke.

"I think Adam drove all night, we shouldn't have been here until later this afternoon." Shiro softly chuckled.

"I wouldn't doubt it, he probably only did it so that he didn't have to help us set up camp this morning." Both men chuckled and Keith nodded in agreement to Shiro's words. Taking a sip of his drink, his head snapped over when he heard one of the doors open, he let out an exasperated sigh when Lance stepped out of the car, stretching and scratching the bed head out of his hair, he locked eyes with Keith, they stared for a second in silence before Keith looked away to ignore the male. Lance's face grew an offended expression, he sighed and grabbed his drink from the cooler, walking over to sit on a stump beside Shiro, he took a drink of the can and begrudgingly admitted in his head that Keith's drink of preference was actually good. 

"So, where's the bathroom?" Both men looked at him. 

"There isn't one. There are bushes over there and then a Kelly hump and some toilet paper in the car." Keith rolled his eyes at the other male. Lance lifted an eyebrow.

"Alright, sort of makes sense, but what the _hell, _is a Kelly hump?" Keith rolled his eyes again and pointed to the large pile of dirt and gravel to their left.

"It's what the campground owners put in to keep people from driving their recreational vehicles all over their land and tearing it up." Lance slowly nodded, taking in the information, admitting the idea was smart. The air went silent around them for a while longer, despite the tense atmosphere between the young adults, it was calming for everyone to be able to sit there in silence. 

After a while, Shiro got up and stretched his arms high above his head, Lance couldn't help but let his eyes linger on the metal and plastic piece of machinery that made up most of Shiro's right arm. Lance didn't know exactly what had caused Shiro to lose his arm, a lot of people at his HighSchool would say that that he lost it in a fight, or in a surfing accident, car accident, there were many rumors, Lance didn't believe them, and of course he had always been curious, he just thought it would be rude to ask about it. Lance let his eyes drift from the prosthetic arm and back to watch a couple of ants on the ground. 

"I'm going to start pulling things out to set up, Adam's a heavy sleeper so I shouldn't wake him up," He paused and eyed the two, "can I trust that you two will be able to put what I pull out without fighting?" Lance and Keith gave each other a look and nodded at Shiro, who nodded back and went to the back of the vehicle to pull everything out. 

"I bet I can put up a tent faster than you." Lance challenged. Keith lifted an eyebrow at him. 

"Really? I doubt it, city boy." Keith rolled his eyes. Lance narrowed his eyes at Keith, the comment ha pissed him off. 

"What, are you scared I'll beat you?" 

"I'm not scared!"

"Then race me in who can put up a tent fastest." Lance smirked in a challenging way and a fire boiled in Keith's stomach.

"Fine, but don't be upset when I beat you." Keith got up to help pull the tents out of the back, shoving one at Lance, who took it and walked over to where the tents would be set up. 

Both got their tents fixed to where they needed them, the two made eye contact before they began, both boys struggled a bit but soon Lance was putting the poles together and staking them into the ground. Keith wasn't far behind, having tangled up his tent fabric while trying to put it on the poles, eventually, Keith had it settled out and untangled, hammering the stakes into the ground, he glanced over to see that Lance's tent was already up, hooking the sun cover over the see-through netting at the top of his tent. 

Lance looked over at Keith with a smirk, he motioned towards his tent with a wide stance. His hands shaking in his very own style of jazz hands. 

"Having trouble over there?" Lance asked, crossing his arms. Keith shook his head and glared at the tent stakes, finally, after a couple of minutes, Keith had his tent up, reaching over the top to clip the see-through net cover to the top. Reaching on his tiptoes and feeling blindly for the plastic clip. Lance smirked and sauntered over, grabbing the hook off the tent and the clip from the cover, connecting the two and looking down at Keith in victory. 

"Shut up." 

"I haven't said anything!" Lance protested, "You're just mad because I beat you." 

"No, I'm not." Keith denied, glaring up at him, hating that he had to crane his neck up to look at the boy. 

"Yes you are, think twice about calling me a city boy, my family owns a farm." Lance glared at him. Keith was slightly taken aback, though he didn't let it show. 

"What's that got to do with setting up a tent?" Keith didn't know a lot about working on a farm, but he knew that setting up a tent wasn't part of the job description.

"I have an older brother who would camp out in the fields with me." Lance rolled his eyes. Keith blinked, it had never occurred to him that Lance might have siblings. 

"Sounds, like fun." Keith mumbled under his breath, he was being genuine, Keith thought the idea sounded fun, he imagined a little lance sitting in a tent in the fields with an older McClain sibling telling him scary stories or helping him catch fireflies. Lance blinked at the shorter man.

"Yeah, it was." Lance agreed and the two stood in silence, both males looked up to each other and for the first time they realized how close they were to one another, Lance having to clip the tent down for Keith had brought the two close, close enough that Lance could feel Keith's hot breath brush his cheeks, Lance watched as a piece of hair fell from Keith's ponytail, and Lance did a double-take, when had Keith put his hair up? Suddenly Lance saw a pink tint spread across Keith's cheeks and his heart did a small leap. Keith stepped back and tucked the hair back behind his ear, he walked off to the camping supplies without a word. Lance watched him walk away and he sucked in a breath, shaking his head. 

"I must be really tired." Lance mumbled as he walked over to help them set up camp, all three silent as they unpacked what they could. Shiro looked at the two as he closed the back of the Outback, smiling lightly to himself, of course, he had watched the whole interaction, celebrating in his head at the small achievement, happy about the progress in his plan.


	5. Raining on the Camping Parade

Keith was in his element, moving and breathing in fresh air, he loved being out in the open, out in the quite, he loved hearing the wilderness noises, chirping and singing of birds, ruffling of leaves, scuttling of rodents in the trees. 

Initially Keith had thought having Lance around would be a curse, or a burden, a pain in his ass. But Keith had to admit, he kind of made things more, fun. The first time Keith had been brought to this conclusion was when they needed firewood. So, naturally, Shiro and Adam stayed to finish setting up dinner, while Keith and Lance were sent to collect fallen branches and logs, as well as dried moss and shrubbery to use as fire starter. And of course, when the two boys were sent to do something together, they turned it into a competition. 

In no time the two were carrying out large arm fulls of fire starter, branches, and logs, earning themselves many scrapes as they rushed back and forth to collect the largest amount of firewood. Eventually, their trips to the woods encircling them, took longer and longer as they cleaned up and collected all the nearby wood. And of course, Adam had noticed that both boys' piles were more than enough to last them, however, Adam enjoyed the time they took when gathering the piles, it gave him peace and quite, as well as time with his fiance to kick back and enjoy themselves. However, Shiro was oblivious to Adam's thoughts and body language, as usual, and decided to tell the boys that they could stop and help make dinner. 

"What's for dinner?" Lance asked as he sat down on one of the logs next to the fire pit. 

"It's a surprise."Shiro said not so secretively, making both Adam and Keith roll their eyes. Keith was busy setting up the fire, it was another thing he enjoyed most about camping, the campfire. And due to Keith's preciseness in absolutely everything, he was appointed the job every time they were to camp, he didn't mind at all, he would never admit it, but he was kind of a pyromaniac, not the kind to enjoy lighting houses and neighborhoods on fire, but he wasn't going to lie and say he had never lit a piece of scrap paper on fire while in his room, or when he would find a pack of matches lying around, he couldn't help himself, Keith thought fire was absolutely beautiful, in the way it danced and flickered, but it was destructive and ruthless, a tool to ruin and demolish. 

Keith jumped when he felt something cold and wet touch his cheek, he looked over to see Lance brandishing a stick with a hot dog skewered on the end. Lance let loose a devilish smirk, biting his lip to hold back a giggle. Keith rolled his eyes and wiped his cheek on his shoulder, grabbing the stick and taking it from Lance's hand.

"Hey! That was mine!" Lance said defensively. Keith scoffed at him and began to roast the hot dog over the fire, not sparing Lance a single look, he knew Lance hated to feel like he was being ignored. 

"Here Lance, just take this one." Shiro handed Lance another skewered stick weenie. Keith rolled his eyes, Shiro was too kind for his own good. 

"Thanks, Shiro." Lance smiled and stuck the hot dog into the flames, Keith lifted an eyebrow at Lance and watched as his hot dog began to bubble and turn black. Lance pulled it from the flames and held it above them where Keith's was. 

"Your'e impatient." Keith commented, side eyeing him. Lance lifted an eyebrow at him. 

"No, hot dogs taste best when burnt." Lance shrugged and looked at Keith, who gave him an absolutely disgusted look. 

"You are so gross, you know if you burn them, they're cold in the middle still, right?" Keith tried pointing out, Lance rolled his eyes dramatically. 

"That's why I'm holding it above the fire, so I can slow-cook the center." Lance pointed out, pulling his hot dog from the fire, standing up to get a bun. 

"Your weenie is burning." Lance stated in spite before covering a hot dog bun in ketchup. Keith sucked in a panicked breath and pulled his hot dog out of the fire, having forgotten to rotate it in a timely manner, he cursed under his breath and sighed, getting up to grab his own bun, laying his hot dog in it before putting ketchup and mustard on it evenly. 

Lance went to sit down and glanced at Keith's hot dog with a smirk of satisfaction, taking a bite of his own hot dog, all three other men visibly flinched at the loud crunching noise. Keith shuddered in disgust, sitting down to eat. 

For a while, all was silent and everyone ate quietly. Until a sudden, unwelcome ringing started from the seat next to Lance, who had jumped and pulled the cell phone out of his pocket,sliding to answer the call, standing up in hopes of getting a signal as well as not to disturb the others. 

"Hello? Mamma?" Lance kept moving, trying to get a signal, "I can't hear you!" He tried to get in before his phone was disconnected, he cursed and sighed. Lifting his phone in hopes of catching some service. 

"Keith? Will you show Lance to the cellphone lookout?" Shiro looked at Keith, who nearly choked on a bite of hot dog, swallowing hard and drinking some water. 

"But-" Keith was cut off by a sharp look from Shiro, with a sigh, Keith stood and walked towards Lance, who hadn't been listening to the conversation.

"Come on, I'll show you to where you can get a signal." Lance looked at Keith briefly and nodded, following him down a path, raising his phone high along the way. 

Keith glanced back at Lance to watch him nervously bite at his nail beds, Keith frowned and stuck his hands into his pockets.

"So, are you close to your Mom?" Keith was genuinely curious, he didn't have any parental experience of his own, Shiro was as close as he got to a parent. Lance looked up from his phone and seemed to consider his question.

"Well, when I was younger we were super close, but I mean, you know how it is when it comes to parents and middle kids." He shrugged and looked down, Keith looked down and watched a leaf blow across the dirt.

"No, I don't." Keith mumbled and immediately panicked, why had he said that? Lance froze for a second, his brows furrowed as he looked at Keith.

"What do you mean?" Keith's heart raced in his ears, he didn't want to raise any questions.

"I'm an only child." This was true, Keith's parents didn't have any other children. Of course, he had many foster siblings while growing up. 

"But, what about Shiro?" Keith wanted to smack himself, he wanted to smack himself so hard his brain fell out of his ear, its not like it is working anyway. 

"Um, well..." thunder rumbled overhead, startling the both of them. Keith looked up as dark clouds rolled in, more leaves blew across the ground as the winds picked up. 

"It's alright, I think it's going around us." Keith commented and continued to walk ahead, grateful for the distraction. 

"Okay..." Lance said warily, his eyes raised to the sky. 

The two reached an open space along the side of the road, Lance raised his phone to check the connection and sighed in relief as he dialed his mother's number. Keith walked a few steps away to give him his privacy, he checked out the debris on the road side from vehicle accidents. Kicking over an old piece of grill to see the bugs underneath. 

"Look, Mamma I know, I was at camp there isn't a good connection-" Keith heard muffled yelling from the other end of the phone. 

"Yes, I know that Antonio always answered his phone, but mom-" there was more muffled yelling, and Keith could see Lance's fists clench at his sides. Keith frowned slightly and silently watched. 

"Yes, uh-huh, I understand." The whole time Lance was calm, Keith could hear the screaming. The conversation went that way a little bit longer.

"But Mom I just-" Keith heard the phone disconnect and he frowned. Lance let his arm go limp, his phone's screen timing out as he hung his head.

"The connection should be fine here, it shouldn't have disconnected." Keith frowned.

"No, it wasn't that." Lance put his phone in his pocket. His shoulders were tense and he kept his face down. 

"Oh.." Keith didn't know what to say, so he kept quiet, they both turned and began to walk back down the path. Keith glanced to look back at him, he bit his lip, he looked so sad. Keith wondered exactly what his mom had said to him, and if that was how all mothers were. The silence between them was thick, Keith didn't know how to cut it, he wondered if Lance remembered he was there. 

Fat raindrops began to fall, drowning out their silence, it was slow for a mere seconds, before it was a complete downpour and both boys looked to one another.

"I thought you said it would go around us!" Lance shouted over the rain, Keith strained to hear him.

"Obviously I was wrong!" He shouted back at him as both boys began to run, Lance had almost slipped multiple times, as he had not brought proper hiking boots, Keith wondered how Lance even walked around in those things normally, he had tried them once, but had almost slipped right onto his butt.

Keith imagined himself slipping and breaking his head against one of the sharp rocks that litter the trail, regardless of his hiking boots. Keith's heart rate picked up and he took a shaky breath, he quickly shook his head and kept his pace steady, he had taught himself how to properly run, how to keep from being out of breath quickly and how to get rid of stitches in his sides. His movements were controlled and consistent, while Lance's were frantic and all over the place, Keith has watched him almost slip multiple times. Finally they made it to camp, Adam and Shiro had already put everything away and were inside their waterproof tent. Keith ran to theirs and unzipped it, Lance hot on his heels.

"Get in! I'm going to get towels from the car!" Keith shouted as Lance nodded and kicked his shoes off to place in the corner of the tent, shoving the blankets and bedding away so they didn't get wet. Keith stood and rushed to the car, popping the back open and digging for two towels.

When Keith got back to the tent he handed Lance a towel, he took it gratefully and patted his hair. Keith took his shoes off and dried off his hair, taking it out of the ponytail he had put it in that morning, he looked up and watched as Lance dried his hair, his shirt was soaked and stuck tight to his torso, showing off his slim torso and lightly toned arms. Keith's cheeks heated up and he immediately looked away, cursing himself. He set his towel aside and grabbed the hem of his shirt, peeling it up and off of his body.

Lance glanced over at Keith and lost his breath, his cheeks flushed pink all the way up to his ears and down to his neck. Okay, Keith was not overly buff but he definitely had muscle, and abs, and biceps, and- Lance silenced his thoughts and looked away, only to glance back for another quick peak, his eyes met Keith and he felt his heart jump, his black hair dripped and fell into his face and down his shoulders, his eyes were bright and shining. Lance had never seen eyes that colour, was it normal? No, it was unique. Only to Keith.

"P-put a shirt on!" Lance looked away, so much for acting cool. Keith flushed red and lifted an eyebrow.

"I can't. I don't have anymore shirts. You should also take yours off, you could catch hypothermia because of that." Keith spoke in a serious tone, his heart was beating in his ears and he wished more then anything that it would just stop.

But, why had Lance asked him to put on a shirt? Did Lance think Keith looked bad? Or odd? Keith swallowed down the thoughts, that wasn't it. Lance looked away and reached down to peel his shirt off, keeping his back to Keith in order to hide his red face. Keith watched from the corner of his eye. What was with this boy and making his heart want to leap out his throat? What was his problem? Why did he do this to Keith? Was he doing it on purpose? Of course not, and yet Keith still blamed him for it. An awkward silence filled the tent as both boys avoided eye contact with one another. And in the silence, Lance's earlier mood crept back into the light, the words of his mother filled his ears and his heart began to beat quickly for a completely different reason. Why did his mother find such joy in comparing him to his siblings? Of course he knew she didn't enjoy comparing him to his siblings, it was just something that happened. But of course, why let go of something that was so much better? Keith looked over to Lance and watched something that wasn't rain water rolled down his cheek.

"Are you okay?" Keith spoke softly, Lance nodded and tried to be inconspicuous about wiping the tear off his cheek.

"I'm fine, don't worry about it." Lance kept his eyes pointed away. Keith felt worry bubble in his chest, of all people, Lance did not deserve to cry, Keith considered him irritating sometimes, but he didn't like seeing him cry.

"Can I do anything to help?"Keith kept his voice level and calm, trying his best to make it inviting, he wanted to help, he needed to help. Lance looked up and studied Keith with his intense blue eyes, Keith swears they got brighter when the storm came.

"I- I don't," Lance couldn't find his words, he didn't know what to say. His words wouldn't work, he took a deep breath and looked away. "Do you ever feel like no matter what, you're not ever going to be good enough for someone you care about?"

Keith thought about this, did he? Of course he did, everyday.

"Yes, yes I do, everyday."

"Who is it?" Lance brought his knees up to his chest and placed his chin atop them.

"Shiro." Keith leaned back on his palms and he looked up to the roof of the tent to watch the water droplets hit the tarp.

"Do you ever do anything to make sure you're good enough?" Lance asked quietly.

"Yeah, I keep up with work, so I can help pay rent before I leave for college, and I help Adam clean the apartment most days. Grocery shopping, all of that."

"And even after that, it still makes you feel like you're not enough?"

"Yes." Lance let the thought sink in, even someone like Keith had self-doubt. Lance had always thought Keith was nearly perfect, like no matter what he always knew how to impress someone.

"What about your mom and dad? Did they ever compare you to Shiro?" This was a question Keith surely would have tried to avoid, and yet he didn't feel the need to,not right now.

"I, I don't have parents." Keith kept his face straight, the sentence was still foreign on his tongue, even after years of them being gone, his heart swelled and his brain throbbed, wanting to even remember them. Lance's head whipped around to look at him, his expression contorted into disbelief.

"What, what happened?" Lance asked cautiously, he didn't want to say something lame and apologize, that usually doesn't go over well, and he guessed it definitely wouldn't for someone like Keith. Keith laid back against the bedding with his arms behind his head.

"I don't know, I can't even remember their faces, I was told it was a car accident, the doctor said I got trauma induced amnesia from it." Keith stared out into space, as if searching for something, anything.

"Man," Lance lay back against the bedding beside Keith, "I can't imagine that." His words drifted off softly.

"What about Shiro? How did he take it?" Lance looked over at Keith.

"Oh, Shiro isn't my blood related brother." Keith said with a shrug. Lance sat back up and gaped at him.

"Are you, really? Dear god how many things are you hiding?" Lance asked incredulously. Keith couldn't help but to chuckle, of all people in this situation, Lance would be the only one to react like that.

"I dunno, You'll just have to stick around to figure them out." Keith smirked at him in challenge. Lance's eyes narrowed at him.

"Yeah? I guess so." Lance rolled his eyes but smirked back.

"Good." Keith unrolled the bedding and slipped out of his soaking pants to put on sweats, slipping under the covers with his back to Lance. Lance's face ignited in red and he huffed,doing the same and also putting his back to Keith.

The rain slowed to a soft pitter patter on the tent, providing a soothing melody for both of the boys, feeling each other's body heat on their backs. Both boys fell asleep that night with soft smiles on their faces, and raging questions in both of their minds.


	6. When you Run out of Gas and get a Big Brother Talk

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lance is stuck in his own head. When the trip goes unplanned and he partners with Shiro to retrieve gas, he gets a talk he never expected.

Lance hadn’t expected much from their conversation a couple of nights back, two nearly-grown men sharing their feelings in a tent while the storm beat down on them, he hadn’t expected for their relationship to change. And, it really hadn’t, except for the fact that the air between them didn’t seem as thick, more comforting and welcome. Lance enjoyed it a bit more than the previous tension that circulated through the backseat between them.

They were still arguing from time to time, but it wasn’t heated or painstakingly reprimanding. And Lance found it to be a bit enjoyable, for once the boys were getting along in their own special Keith and Lance sort of way, insults aplenty and sarcasm galore, but snarky comments aside both boys ended each sentence with a cocky grin that grew with every come-back. It filled Lance with a sort of hope, that his perfect vacation wouldn’t be ruined by the mullet adorned teen who sat a seat away. Instead, he felt his spirits lifting, as if he knew it would only get better from there. 

Currently, the boys sat in the back seat of the outback, with Shiro driving his shift and Adam keeping him company from the passenger’s seat. Keith sat with his headphones in, watching a video on his phone. Lance’s own phone had died overnight due to his lack of memory to plug the damn thing in. Though, Lance didn’t mind as much. Now that he and Keith had gotten better at being around each other, he no longer felt the need to shut himself out of the car ride until they hit the docking area. The Cuban boy felt completely at ease simply screen-peaking over Keith’s shoulder to watch the video of ghosts and ghouls. 

This raised the question, did Keith like cryptids and mysteries? Lance tried to think back on their school years together, and he had remembered seeing Keith in plenty of shirts about aliens, but that didn’t mean much. Just because someone wears rainbows doesn’t mean they aren’t homophobic. 

“Do you wanna watch or what?” Lance hadn’t noticed that Keith had been brandishing an earbud to him. For how long, he did not know. His cheeks burned and he accepted the earbud, pressing it into his ear and leaning over a bit more to see the small screen better. Keith did the same, scooting-in just a few inches. As Lance had been suspecting, when Keith pressed play, the video lit up with the image of a host in front of a green screen. Which brandished the picture of a spooky tree silhouette. The video was from a channel that posted count-downs of cryptid sightings and encounters. The contents of the video were interesting and kept Lance’s mind occupied from the thought of Keith’s head leaning in so close to his own. 

His hair was practically brushing against the top of Lance’s shoulder. Keith’s soft, light features poked out from under the dark scruff of his bangs. Being this close-up, Lance realized how long Keith’s eyelashes were, they were thick and sort-of feminine, but they didn’t take away from his strong handsome features. Lance, again, was distracted by the thought of the dark-haired boy who sat beside him. He wondered if Keith was ever insecure about his feminine features. If it ever made him worry about another person’s thoughts, Lance himself had refused to pluck his eyebrows after his father became suspicious of his self-care habits. So terrified that his father would find out about his preferences to men and women alike, he threw away something that he cared about and that made him happy. Lance glanced up to Shiro for the briefest moment, then came to the conclusion that perhaps Keith never had to worry about someone he idolized thinking of him in such ways. Shiro, after all, was gay. He had a male fiance for Pete’s sake. 

Would Keith’s parents have been okay with that sort of thing? For the briefest moment, Lance felt as if he could relate to Keith in the smallest sense of the word. He found himself wanting to meet people who had long since passed on. A whole new topic breached the surface of Lance’s curiosity, what had really happened to Keith’s parents? Lance remembered that it had supposedly been a car accident. But how could they fully know when the sole survivor of the supposed ‘crash’ had amnesia? And another question was raised, how was Keith mentally? This was not an uncommon question in Lance’s brain. It visited quite often, especially during their school years when he and Keith were constantly getting into physical fights. 

Keith could pack a nasty punch, his emotions got the better of him. He was like a teapot left on the stove, screaming and yet having to hold in his raw emotions in fear of boiling over and losing it. Through this analogy, Lance deducted that Keith, however strong and stubborn, was just like any other teen their age, consisting of a pretty messed up past. Keith was, in a sense, delicate. And suddenly, Lance regretted some of the awful things he had said to Keith in their youth. They had both picked at one another’s insecurities little by little. Keith had been through so much, how could Lance have done those things to him? To be fair, he didn’t know anything about Keith back then. He had always just been jealous, he had been up showed in everything by Keith. It was a defense mechanism to revolt against the idea of coming in second. 

Growing up in a big family could do that to you, especially as a middle child. And as Lance sat beside this broken human being, he silently vowed he would never hurt him again. It was the least he could do, after everything. Lance felt as if their whole toxic could-have-been-friendship was all his fault, if he hadn’t revolted against Keith in the first place, they wouldn’t have fought. They could have been great friends, and now Lance mourned the un-spent time they could have had together. 

“We’re lost.” Announced Adam from the passenger seat, looking up from his phone and forcing Lance from his thoughts. 

“No, we aren’t-” Adam cut off Shiro’s words and pointed to his phone, which displayed the guidelines of a road unmarked by the map where their location cursor was moving. 

“This road isn’t even on the map, when did we leave the interstate?” 

“A couple of hours ago, this was a short-cut to the,” he paused and checked the rearview, Lance glanced at Keith, who was not paying the slightest attention to the conversation, “the museum of Cryptids in Merrylin.” Said Shiro in a lowered tone. Adam lifted an eyebrow at his fiance and hmm’d.

“Are you sure? Cause I don’t even see any houses or towns on this road, no landmarks of any sort either.” he commented, glancing out the window to peak at his surroundings. 

"I am absolutely sure Babe, just trust me." Shiro smiled at Adam, who slowly nodded, glancing at the fuel gauge. 

"Hey, Takashi, we are almost out of gas." Adam pointed out blatantly, to which Shiro replied:

"There is a gas station a couple of miles ahead of us, we'll be fine." He reassured, smiling calmly to Adam.

But of course, they weren't, a couple miles after Shiro's reassurance, the engine began spluttering. Adam shot a look Shiro's way, but Shiro simply smiled sheepishly. And the next thing they knew all four men were pushing the outback off the road into a cell phone pull out. A line of traffic backed up behind them, yet not a single pedestrian seemed to feel the urge to ask if they needed help. Not a single one brandished a set of jumper cables in case their car had died. But then, could Lance expect any less from the world? 

"Well, that's just great now isn't it? What are we going to do now Takashi?" Adam asked, he wasn't angry, and he didn't sound as aggravated as his words should have been. His demeanor was a little stiff but he spoke like it was an actual question and he wasn't demeaning Shiro's judgment. It felt foreign to Lance, hearing a sentence like that not spit out in total menace and spite. He couldn't count on his fingers how many times he heard similar things from his mother or father. 

"It's okay," Shiro spoke from the back of the vehicle, presenting a small red gas can, "we'll just have to walk ahead and bring back a can of gas. And you won't even have to come, I can take Lance and we'll both go. You and Keith can just stay and man the fort." Shiro smiled reassuringly yet again, his cool and calm demeanor settling the anxieties of everyone else. 

Lance didn't know why he'd specifically been volunteered for the walk to the gas station. Though he was kind of happy for the distraction. Lance wasn't the kind of guy to be able to sit still for long periods of time. He would have been bouncing off the walls if he had been chosen to stay behind. But Lance was nearly certain he still might have preferred staying.

Under the sun in the barren lands of Arizona, his skin quickly got sticky and slick with sweat, he had taken his jacket off to tie around his waist. They walked side by side down the highway, weeds sprouted up from the dry ground and any sight of grass was shriveled and crunched under Lance's shoes. Shiro looked like he was holding up just fine, merely taking the outterputteo layer of flannel from his torso before leaving the car. Now he wore a black wife beater. His metal and plastic prosthetic caught and reflected the sunlight, occasionally blinding Lance. 

Lance hadn't seen sun like this in a very long time. He lived in California, sure, but he never got  _ out _ . Always forced to stay behind and watch over his niece and nephew. Besides work, Lance didn't ever get out. With Allura hanging out with her boyfriend all the time, Pidge being a shut in little gremlin, and Hunk at his family's reunion in Hawaii, Lance had barely seen the sun this summer. 

"You and Keith are getting along better." Shiro pointed out, snapping Lance from the thoughts of his non-existent social life.

"What are you talking about? We've been tearing at each other's throats just as usual." Lance stated quickly. His gaze averted to an interesting red coloured rock in the ditch. When he glanced up, he saw Shiro's dad-face and he went stiff. Lance would never get used to that face, no matter how many times he saw it. It always caught him off his guard and made him bristle with defense. 

"Lance, you know what I'm talking about." Shiro chided playfully. Lance averted his gaze again, this time to scrap metal left in the ditch from plenty of accidents. 

"Sure, I guess you're right." Lance shrugged nonchalantly, shoving his hands into his pockets. Even though they were miles away from home, Lance still felt the scrutinizing gaze of his father every time he considered wearing his Jean shorts. After a couple of years of friendship with Allura, he had obtained a surplus of comfortable feminine clothes. Including crop tops and high waisted shorts. Allura wasn't his only supplier, everytime Pidge's mother forced them to go shopping in the overly-feminine section of the retail stores. Pidge would always grab something slightly bigger, in order to please their mother. However their mother would never see those outfits, as Pidge would always transfer them to Lance's locker during school. 

Lance wasn't a cross dresser, or a runway Queen. But he enjoyed how comfortable women's clothes were. He felt just a little more free in them. He dared not wear them around his family though. 

"I'm glad you guys are getting along better. It was actually part of my intention for inviting you along." Shiro admitted.

"Really? But, why?" Lance asked incredulously. Shiro chuckled and shook his head.

"You guys have been at each other's throats for years, it was hard being around sometimes when we would all hang out. All you two would dow as sulk and bring down everyone's moods." Lance felt a pang of guilt, he hadn't realized that his dislike towards Keith had affected his friends.

"I'm sorry Shiro, I didn't know I was causing so much trouble for everyone." Lance kicked a rock aside, his heart heavy. 

"That's not what I'm trying to say. Listen, when I was in college I took a class on Human Relations and we basically studied how people reacted differently towards each other and the problems that could cause in their future." Shiro glanced at Lance, who met his eyes with a sense of curiosity. Lance liked hearing stories from Shiro, he could always tell them just right. It reminded him of when his older brother would build forts with him and his siblings, telling them scary stories. 

"The way you two were reacting towards one another, well, it wasn't healthy. It tore not only your relationship, but our whole friend group. And I thought we could fix that by giving you guy's time to figure it out on your own. I know that part of it was selfish on my part, but, I was also doing it for Keith too," Shiro stared ahead of them. "He isnt the most stable person, he is a shut in, and he hates communication. I don't know if he's shared anything from his past with you or not…" Shiro trailed off, once again locking eyes with Lance, who nodded. 

"He told me about his parents, and that you two weren't blood related." Shiro smiled, almost to himself.

"Good, the only person he had told was me, and of course the doctors and police. But, Keith was in the foster care system for quite a long time, and each time he got placed with a family. They would send him back, with such short interactions, it resulted in a short temper. Which evolved into shorter interactions, until he was about twelve, when he was placed with Adam and I." Shiro took a break and ran his hand through his hair, having to switch the gas can to his prosthetic arm. 

"Oh boy it was rough. Still have a couple holes in the wall from the first couple of months." Shiro chuckled and Lance lifted an eyebrow at the tall male. 

"That bad, huh?" Lance asked lightly, his curiosity burning. Shiro nodded, seemingly at nothing in particular. 

"But, after the first couple of months, he got better and better. When we hit the third month we got a call from the foster system, asking if everything was alright and such. And I found out that it had been the longest Keith had ever been placed in a home. It threw me off a bit. As time went on, Keith opened up more and more, adapting to school and work, we got him a gym membership and that was really the contributing factor to his health. It got out his negative energy." Shiro smiled at Lance, pride shown in his eyes.

The sight made Lance's heart ache, his mind clouded with images of his parents giving those looks to his siblings, when they graduated, or got their jobs, promoted. Anything that a parent should be proud of. Lance had to look away, he couldn't stand that look. 

"He isn't a very stable person Lance, I think you know that. But, Adam and I aren't going to be able to watch over him once he heads off to college. He needs someone to stick by his side, a friend." Lance understood what Shiro was saying, gulping down his anxiety he looked up at the taller man again. 

"I don't know him that well yet, but he is actually really cool to be around. And I honestly look forward to getting to know him more." Lance smiled at Shiro honestly, questions raging in his head. Shiro smiled back and clapped a hand on Lance's back.

Lance hadn't realized when their feet were on concrete, the smell of gas flooded his senses. They had reached the gas station. Shiro's words lingering in the back of his head. The trip back to the car was lighthearted and filled with small talk, what they were looking forward to from the vacation. Which part they were most excited about, even Adam and Shiro's plans for the cryptid museum Lance had heard them talking about. It was just a surprise for Keith, not for any special occasion. Lance smiled at that, confirming the fact that Keith was a cryptid enthusiast made him feel vaguely happy. Maybe he was just excited to learn things about Keith, as his curiosity peaked about the other males likes and dislikes. He considered asking Shiro about them, but he decided against it. Wanting to learn for himself just who Keith Kogane was. 


End file.
